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Happy Jack: A Day in the Life of one of Southwest’s Biggest Fans

Jack Henry has been ‘geek chic’ for Southwest Airlines since his first SWA flight 2 1/2 years ago. Like most little boys, we considered his penchant for planes to be fairly typical, but Jack’s love of planes was specific to SWA. He talked so much about Southwest that the following year, when we made our summer vacation plans, we specifically decided to fly Southwest as we knew it would thoroughly delight Jack. This flight only fueled his fire for all things SWA, which we found useful in negotiating that tricky period in the morning of trying to get breakfast made with two hungry toddler boys. While I prepared breakfast, I would let Jack watch a YouTube video of SWA on the condition that he had to type out “Southwest Airlines” into the computer. So at the age of 3 1/2, although he couldn’t spell his first name, he could most definitely spell Southwest Airlines! I thought, of course he would want to watch videos with planes taking off, but he quickly learned how to navigate YouTube and his favorite videos included information about SWA and general air travel. Jack’s favorite videos are, ‘A Day in the Life of Reservations’, ‘A Day in the Life of Cargo’ and his number one favorite, ‘A Day in the Life of the 25 Minute Turn’. And, oh yes you can bet he’s a bit sweet on Miss Christi McNeill.

With all of Jack’s SWA enthusiasm, we wanted to do something special for his 4th birthday. We thought it would be great if we could get him a tour of SWA at our local airport in Los Angeles. As you can imagine, this is not as easy as you would think. However, SWA’s customer-friendly team (led by the amazing Ashley Pettit) went out of their way to make it happen!

Our young pilot’s day began at 5:30 a.m. in preparation for our 7 a.m. tour at LAX. There we were greeted by SWA’s John B., who gave Jack a gift of an official toddler-sized SWA pilot hat and a SWA toy set. Talk about knowing how to get straight to Jack’s heart! Jack dressed in his pilot uniform, capped with his official SWA pilot hat, relished in the attention and proceeded to tell everyone he was a pilot for SWA and that his little brother James was his Copilot.

John gave Jack a VIP tour, spending over an hour and a half with us, taking us to baggage, to maintenance, and to the flight tracker room, (you’d think boring, but oh no, Jack was eating all of it up). Afterward, John took us onto the tarmac where Jack checked out air stairs, a provisioning truck (or as Jack calls it, ‘the food truck’), aviation pushbacks, the wheels of a plane, and the baggage compartment. One of the ground crew guys came over to say hi and gave Jack a lift up into the baggage compartment. Then he did the ultimate and gave Jack a pair of light sticks! (Since then he’s been waving in planes from our front balcony!).

You may be wondering if this tour could get any better…well, it did. Captain Scott Kirk and First Officer Drew W. graciously agreed to arrive early to greet our birthday boy. Captain Kirk was so delightful with Jack in the giving of his time and enthusiasm. Not knowing John had already given Jack the SWA toy set, he also purchased one for Jack, which really touched us.

I feel that my words do not convey the generosity of Captain Kirk, the crew and John B. shared with Jack Henry and all of us that day, but I hope you can start to get a glimmer of it. And so, it is with heartfelt gratitude, we thank the magnificent team at Southwest Airlines: Ashley Petit, John B., Captain Scott Kirk, First Officer Drew W., the Flight Crew, and all the other SWA team members who contributed to a most wonderful ‘Day in the Life of Jack Henry’ that will likely become a cherished lifetime memory.

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Featured Comment

What a GREAT UPLIFTING story and a cute “little man”. SWA is always my carrier of choice. Today when daily news is so gloomy, nice to see SWA providing some sunshine…Time for America to “move about the country”!

Featured Comment

I know this was a great day for Jack, how cute is this! I know my grandson, Connor (11) was excited the day he got to sit in a cockpit seat of a Southwest Flight leaving Raleigh, NC. He felt right at home, since he wants to become a pilot like his Uncle Andy who is a SW pilot. Yeah for the personal touches of SW!